Iowa Restaurant Offering Discount to Diners Who Give Up Their Phone While Eating

If the company of fellow diners isn’t enough to get you to put down your cellphone, how about this offer: a 10 percent discount?

Sneaky’s Chicken, a restaurant in Sioux City, Iowa, has launched a promotion on Wednesday nights called Back in the Day Dinner. Servers bring boxes to the table and if everyone in the group stashes their cellphones, the guests get 10 percent off their bill.

The offer seems to be working. “I would say 99 percent of the people [participate],” general manager Christy Wright told the Sioux City Journal. “Some are kind of hesitant. Some really think it’s a great idea. They’re like, ‘I don’t know if I can give it up, but I’ll try.’”

Others in Sioux City don’t think phones are as evil as they’re made out to be. “When we talk we’ll say, ‘What about this?’ and surf,” said Karen Brown, one patron who was interviewed. “We don’t use them to talk. We think that’s rude.”

Exactly. We could waste half our meal debating how old Mick Jagger is, or we could find the answer on Wikipedia and then move on with our lives!

Still, phone etiquette at restaurants seems to be a growing issue. And getting a discount sure beats the possible alternative: being charged some sort of phone usage fee.